At the Department of Education, Warm Snow Falls
Up
By Anthony Cody
on February 23, 2012 10:32 AM
As the Simpson family prepared to
travel south of the equator to Brazil, Homer revealed some
misconceptions. In opposite land, according to Bart's father, "warm snow
falls up." Reading the latest press releases and speeches from the
Department of Education, sometimes I feel as if this is where we have arrived.
For the past two years, the Department of Education policies have been
roundly criticized by teachers. The latest response from Arne Duncan is a big
public relations push bearing the title RESPECT -- Recognizing Educational
Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching.
However, as in Homer's opposite-land, everything seems to be upside
down.
In his speech launching
the project last week, Secretary Duncan laid out what he feels
are the problems afflicting the teaching profession.
The Department has solutions to each of these problems - but they
often have pursued policies that actually make things worse. Here are the
problems, and the solutions the Department of Ed has offered -- many of which
are mandatory if states wish to qualify for Race to the Top or escape the
ravages of NCLB:
Problem #1: "Many of our schools of education are mediocre at best. A
staggering 62 percent of young teachers say they felt unprepared to enter the
classroom."
Solution: Evaluate schools of education based on the test scores of the
teachers they graduate. Use VAM scores to rate schools of education, and remove
funding from those that do not produce teachers with sufficiently high VAM
ratings. Since VAM ratings have been shown to be lower among teachers of
English Language learners and special education students, programs that place
teachers in these classrooms are likely to do poorly. All schools of education
will feel significant pressure to prepare their teachers to focus on test
scores.
Problem #2: "Many teachers are poorly trained and isolated in their
classrooms."
Solution: Continue to support programs such as Teach For America, which places
novice teachers in the most challenging classrooms with only five weeks of
training.
Problem #3: "Teachers are given little time to succeed--and they are under
increasing pressure to get results to meet accountability targets."
Bizarre. What agency of the federal government made competitive grants and the
continuation of federal funding contingent on whether states created evaluation
programs like the one released last week in New York, that will result in
teachers being fired after two years of poor VAM ratings?
